Teaching this week in Harrisburg, Pa.
I didn’t get to fulfill my wish to blog Monday’s opening day of the three-day visual journalism workshop we’re teaching this week here in Harrisburg, Pa.
The reason? I got here Sunday afternoon. But my luggage didn’t.
My traveling companion for the second leg of my journey — Darren Sanefski of the Syracuse Post-Standard — didn’t lose his bags. That’s because he only brought carry-on. I’m the dumbass who paid an extra $15 to check my bag with United Airlines.
So when United canceled our flight Sunday from Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., to Harrisburg — and so we elected to rent a car and drive the two hours here, rather than wait around another five or six, hoping for another flight — Darren tossed his bags into the back and settled in for the ride. I had my laptop and the clothes on my back and a promise from United that they’d bring my suitcase to me later.
They did, eventually. Nearly 24 hours after I arrived here. So I spent a miserable Sunday night, and reported to the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association Monday looking awfully unprofessional in jeans and a stinky Hawaiian shirt.
Darren teaches grids Tuesday morning. That’s the
soon-to-be-redesigned Hartford Courant on the right.
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No one seemed to mind, though. We had a small but enthusiastic crowd of 11. I spent the day wishing I had my camera — safely tucked away in my bag, of course — so I could show you our audience. It wasn’t until I began writing this paragraph that it suddenly occurred to me: I have a camera: My cell phone. D’oh!
Despite my mental lapses, Monday was a very good day here at PNA. We kicked off the morning with my Art of Being Brilliant session. Darren gave the same Gestalt of Visual Journalism presentation he gave to a packed room last week at SND/Vegas. Darren then taught a brief 30-minute session on his top 10 favorite Photoshop tips before we broke for lunch.
After lunch, our audience chose to have me show them how I built my infamous Battleship cut-away diagram back in 1995 before I launched into a 90-minute session on brilliant content. Darren came back with a hands-on session on developing brainstorming skills. We ended our day with critiques of pages from our attendees.
Afterward, Darren and I went to dinner with Ashley Gurbal of the Altoona Mirror, Daniel Hunt of the Wilmington, Del., News Journal and multimedia consultant and VizEds founder Robb Montgomery. We sat outside on the deck of a friendly little pub on Front Street, overlooking the Susquehanna River and shared war stories over a few beers. Screw the Eagles/Cowboys game; we had a great time.
I returned to our hotel and asked the guy at the desk if my luggage had finally arrived. “No,” the kid deadpanned. “The plane crashed.” Everybody’s a comedian these days.
Then he relented and gave me my bags. I was one very happy — but slightly grubby — speaker.
Darren talking branding. Pop quiz: How many
of these consumer brands can you identify with
just one letter?
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Darren has already kicked off this morning with a truly fascinating discussion on grids and branding. He’s already dissected a selection of today’s page ones covering Monday’s stock market metltdown — based on their use of grids – and then shown how well the advertising world uses branding to make its point quickly and how newspapers and magazines can use the same techniques.
Geez, this guy is good. I hope my next session goes as well.
Next up: My presentation on big design for small papers, a couple of wild-card sessions, Darren on using color and then a hands-on centerpiece exercise.